Here are this year's qualifiers. There are 27!!! (So if I were still in Southern California and still hitting all of them, I'd be broke. Hey wait, I am broke. What the hey?) The Angry Birds Movie April and the Extraordinary World Bilal Finding Dory Ice Age: Collision Course Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV Kubo and the Two Strings Kung Fu Panda 3 The Little Prince Long Way North Miss Hokusai Moana Mokney King: Hero Is Back Mune Mustafa & the Magician My Life as a Zucchni Phantom Boy The Red Turtle Sausage Party The Secret Life of Pets Sing Showtime! Storks Trolls 25 April Your Name. Zootopia There are several there I've never heard of, and that's driving me nuts, but it can't be helped. Of the independent flicks listed, I've somehow managed to find theaters within 75 miles showing Miss Hokusai, April and the Extraordinary World, Kubo and the Two Strings (which is Laika, but it might as well be independent since audiences avoided it in droves), and Long Way North. While all those movies are pretty good and get a thumbs up from me, I wasn't wildly enthused by any of them, as you no doubt noticed when I totally failed to come on here and madly gush about them. Kubo is slightly better than the other three, and definitely much better looking. I've seen quite a bit of gushing about The Red Turtle, but there's approximately zero chance that I'll be getting to see that before the ceremony. Same with Your Name, an anime flick that was a monster hit in Japan. Phantom Boy got good reviews and is out on home video, so I'll be checking it out soon (although their previous flick, A Cat in Paris, was overrated in my opinion). TLR: Since I've seen so few of the mainstream ones (and have little interest in doing so), and the top indies seem so evenly matched, I figure anything can happen. But barring surprises from the ranks of the unseen, I figure it's Moana's to lose. If not, then Zootopia. Of course knowing 2016, it'll probably be Sausage Party. EDIT: Why is there a green grinning face in the middle of TLR:? I'm agin it.
Right now I am exactly 2605 driving miles from the Laemmle Music Hall theater. And words cannot express how upset I am about it. Japan's No. 1 film is playing in L.A. Here's why you should see it
There has to be: at least one disney movie - Moana and/or Zootopia 1 pixar movie - finding Dory 1 Dreamworks - Kung Fu Panda 3 1 Studio Ghibli - The Red Turtle 1 non Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks - The Secret Life of Pets Winner is typically Disney or Pixar.
I just checked. Your "has to be" list has literally never happened. 2002 - No Pixar 2009 - No Dreamworks or Ghibli 2011 - No Disney, Pixar or Ghibli (!) 2012 - No Ghibli or Dreamworks 2013 - No Pixar 2014 - No Pixar 2015 - No Dreamworks Other years (starting 2001) - only 3 nominees Besides, you didn't include a slot for a GKIDS movie. Now THAT'S a bad bet. They've had at least one in 2009, 2011, and every year from 2013 on - and that's not even counting the Ghibli movies they distributed. I don't expect Dory, Panda or Pets to get a nom. (Disclaimer: Haven't seen Pets yet.)
(2015 - no Disney either. Originally had it "no Pixar", but duh. 10 minute limit caught me before I made the final correction.) And there's NO WAY "Kubo and the Two Strings" doesn't get nominated. No. Friggin'. Way.
The nominees are: Kubo and the Two Strings (Boo-ya!) Moana My Life as a Zucchini (See? GKIDS! What did I tell ya?) The Red Turtle Zootopia Well, poop. I've only seen three of them. (Should be four as of this weekend, though. "The Red Turtle" is supposed to open Friday.) Conspicuously snubbed: "Your Name", which is now the #1 anime feature OF ALL TIME. Yep, ahead of "Spirited Away". "Zootopia" gets the Oscar. Because politics.
I've only seen the Disney movies; although Moana was a lot of fun and fit the traditional mold very well, I have to give the advantage to Zootopia. It told an incredibly timely story, and was done in a way that could only work in the animated medium; the live action equivalent would be heavy-handed beyond belief, but the end result was very compelling It's not animated, but as long as we're talking Disney-related Oscars...I'm very surprised that OJ: Made in America was nominated in the Documentary category. I have various connections to the story, so I made sure to watch the series over the summer, and it was one of the most incredible pieces of television I've ever seen; I was actually just talking about it with a near-stranger over the weekend. It does a great job of explaining not just the OJ's (shall we say) legal troubles, but also his rise to fame, personal life, and excellent background on race relations nationwide and in LA at the time. Clocking in at nearly 8 hours (without commercials!), watching it is much more of an undertaking than most documentaries, but it's well worth it
I just saw Pets over the weekend. Perfectly acceptable way to spend 90 minutes, and I did get a kick out of Kevin Hart's bunny, but not surprised it didn't get nominated. Assuming Zootopia or Moana wins, that would be 3 of the last 4 for WDFA - not bad for a unit that the conventional wisdom once held was all-but-dead, and a distant second to Pixar.
I saw that mentioned in the article below, and it got me wondering why that doesn't happen more often. Animated films often push the boundaries of visual effects, trying out new things that are picked up years later and adapted into live action films. I also have to wonder if they'll revisit the rules for what constitutes an "animated" film in the future; for example, it seems like The Jungle Book should be animated, but perhaps something like Dinosaur would be live action, since it has more live action than a lot of blockbuster movies 10 Fun Facts About the 2017 Oscar Nominees That article also mentioned that OJ: Made in America is the longest film ever nominated, which isn't too surprising considering it was originally a mini-series. I can't imagine trying to watch the whole thing in one sitting, both because I would need (several) bathroom breaks and because it's an emotionally exhausting story
The definition of an animated feature, according to the Academy circa 2017: An animated feature film is defined as a motion picture with a running time of more than 40 minutes, in which movement and characters’ performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique. Motion capture by itself is not an animation technique. In addition, a significant number of the major characters must be animated, and animation must figure in no less than 75 percent of the picture’s running time Yes, they do have people sit there with a stopwatch and time the 75% thing. And some movies have been disqualified because of it, most notably "Yogi Bear" in 2010, which dropped the eligible number below the 16 movie threshold, which resulted in two movies not getting nominated. And one of them was "Tangled". Anyhoo, I digress. They've actually revisited the rules several times, and I'm sure they'll continue to do so in the future. But the main reason you don't see "The Jungle Book" in this category is because Disney didn't submit it for qualification. In other words, it's not an animated feature because the marketing department doesn't want it to be. (See also: "Avatar".)
Wellll, we have my yearly "movie that the critics and mawnck totally disagree on." Wasn't that crazy about "The Red Turtle". Given the weak year I can't argue about the nomination, and TBH it's a good movie and I give it thumbs up, but all the gushing over how marvelous it is is a bit over the top. It's very pretty and very lyrical and very ... allegorical, but the characters and animation are so personality-challenged that it's a movie you watch rather than get involved in.
I missed reading your threads about animation while I was away, mawnck. I think I learn more about the animated feature Oscars from your posts than I do from the entertainment media.
Same! With all the voices in the media, it was tough to figure out who was worth listening to. Here, it was trustworthy and honest reviews that were written in a very approachable manner, with a thoroughness that I never found in real publications. And having an author who interacts with us plebeians just made it that much more fun!
